When the Ottawa Senators announced the roster for their regular-season opener, defenceman Carter Yakemchuk’s name was noticeably absent.
Yakemchuk was assigned to the AHL’s Belleville Senators on Monday. He had zero points during the pre-season and nearly made the Sens roster last year. He has yet to make his NHL debut.
“To his play and his commitment, he’s taken a big step forward in the right direction,” said Senators general manager Steve Staios of Yakemchuk on Wednesday. “Very pleased with off-ice conditioning, strength, and his game is starting to round into form. Circumstances are we have some depth on defence. If that were different would he come up to play? Yes. I do believe that.
“Always mindful of these young players, high-end talented players, what is the right timing? I think Carter will tell us and we feel comfortable about him being in Belleville and in that environment to continue to grow his game.”
In Tuesday’s edition of Early Insider Trading with TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger, he explained that Yakemchuk’s demotion comes with veteran defenceman Nick Jensen being unexpectedly ready to start the season after off-season hip surgery.
“The reason why they acquired Jordan Spence was as a backup plan to Nick Jensen to get them out of the gate with some experience there,” said Dreger. “So, because of that, they can embrace patience with Carter Yakemchuk and that’s what they’re doing. They’ve done it with other Ottawa Senators defencemen – Tyler Kleven comes to mind.
“This one stings for the 20-year-old. He had a good camp. I wouldn’t call it a great camp, his first camp last year, maybe marginally better, but that just proves how difficult it is to crack an NHL lineup as a young up-and-coming defenceman. But he’s going play in the National Hockey League this year. They just like the idea of him getting a little bit more experience and seasoning in Belleville.”
The 20-year-old defenceman, who was drafted seventh overall by Ottawa in 2024, had 17 goals and 49 points in 56 games last season with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen.
The Senators open the season with eight defencemen on the roster with Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub on the top pairing, Thomas Chabot with Jensen skating as the second pair and Kleven and Spence on the third pairing. Donovan Sebrango and Nikolas Matinpalo were the fourth pairing at Wednesday’s practice.
Ottawa opens the 2025-26 season on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Lines from #Sens skate:
Tkachuk-Stützle-Zetterlund
Perron-Cozens-Amadio
Greig-Pinto-Giroux
Cousins-Eller-Lycksell
*Batherson working on 1st and 2nd lines
Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-Spence
Sebrango-Matinpalo
Ullmark
Merilainen
— Claire Hanna (@clahanna) October 8, 2025